1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to child car safety seats, and in particular relates to a child car safety seat having a crisscross restraining harness and moveable safety bar.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many different types of child car seats are known in the art for seating a child in a car and designed to keep the child safe, particularly in the case of an accident. Typically such car seats include a back, a seat, means to hold the child in the car seat such as shoulder or chest restraining straps, and means to attach the car seat to the car such as by providing a means for the child car seat to be held with a vehicle seat belt. Often the means of holding the child in the car seat are complicated and difficult to adjust or fasten. In addition, prior child safety seats typically either do not restrain the child well or are very complicated and difficult to use.
Prior car seats' restraining straps usually use clips at the front to hold the two shoulder/chest straps together. These clips, typically made of plastic that can be subject to material breakdown as a result of age and over-exposure to heat and sun, can become brittle and break. The clips can also give way in an accident, and/or older children can undo the clip so that the child is no longer secured behind the clipped shoulder straps. The child is thus not held securely in the case of a sudden movement change of the vehicle, such as a swerve or sudden stop. In addition, the child can climb out of the car seat if the shoulder straps are not held together.
Most prior car seats have no secondary restraining mechanism that can function to hold a child in the seat if the shoulder straps become unclipped or are otherwise not functioning or fastened properly. For that minority of car seats that also have a bar across the front of the child, these bars are generally permanent, making it difficult to remove the child or position the child in the seat.
To adjust the shoulder strap lengths of prior car seats for different children or for when a child grows, the car seat must be removed from the car so that the adult can reach into the back of the seat back, where the seat belts come through the seat back, and can move the seat belt to a different position. This difficulty of adjustment can lead to adults not adjusting the shoulder strap length as often as is needed, with the possible result that the child is either not held sufficiently tightly within the car seat, or is held uncomfortably too tightly therein.
While U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,551 of Cone has a restraining apparatus that includes shoulder straps, a padded shield and an adjustable lower strap, the shield is not adjustable to fit the size of the child and straps are not independently adjustable.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a child car safety seat that has a restraining system consisting of two chest restraining straps and one lower restraining strap, which are independently adjustable.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a child car safety seat in which the two chest restraining straps comprise an adjustable crisscross harness system in which the chest restraining straps are crossed in front of the child.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a child car safety seat that has an adjustable restraining safety bar.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a child car safety seat having shoulder straps that may be adjusted without removing the child car safety seat completely from the vehicle seat.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a child car safety seat having a shoulder strap design that securely prevents the child from exiting the seat.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.